Isle of the Dead by Zelazny Roger

Author:Zelazny, Roger [Zelazny, Roger]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780020374657
Publisher: Ace
Published: 1969-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

VI

To have it all to do over again annoyed me. But more than annoyance, there was a certain fear. Shandon had slipped up, selling himself to his emotions once. He would not be likely to make the same mistake again. He was a tough, dangerous man, and now he apparently had a piece of something which made him even more dangerous. Also, he had to be aware of my presence on Illyria, after my sending to Green Green earlier in the evening.

“You have complicated my problem,” I said, “so you are going to help me resolve it.”

“I do not understand,” Green Green said.

“You baited a trap for me and it has grown more teeth,” I told him, “but the bait is just as much an inducement now as it was before. I’m going after it, and you’re coming along.”

He laughed.

“I am sorry, but my path leads in the opposite direction. I will not go back willingly, and I would be of no use to you as a prisoner. In fact, I would represent a distinct impediment.”

“I have three choices,” I said. “I can kill you now, let you go your way, or allow you to accompany me. You may dismiss the first for the time being, as you are of no use to me dead. If you go your way, I will proceed as I began, on my own. If I obtain what I wish, I will return to Megapei. There, I will tell how you failed in your centuries-long plan of vengeance on an Earthman. I will tell how you dropped your plan and fled, because another man of that same race had scared the hell out of you. If you wish then to take wives, you must seek them from among your people on other worlds—and even there, the word may reach them eventually. None would call you Dra, despite your wealth. Megapei would refuse your bones when you die. You will never again hear the ringing of the tidal bells and know that they ring for you.”

“May the blind things at the bottom of the great sea, whose bellies are circles of light,” he said, “recall with pleasure the flavor of your marrow.”

I blew a smoke ring. “… And if I should proceed as I began, on my own,” I said, “and be slain myself in the coming encounter, do you think that you will escape from harm? Did you not look into the mind of Mike Shandon as you fought him? Did you not say that you hurt him? Do you not know that he is a man who will not forget such a thing? He is not so subtle as a Pei’an. He does not consider it necessary to proceed with finesse. He will simply turn and seek you, and when he finds you he will cut you down. So whether I win or lose, your end will be disgrace or death.”

“If I elect to accompany you and assist you, what then?” he asked.

“I will forget the vengeance which you sought upon me,” I said.

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